Emma Corrin Says They Are Open to Playing Male Characters: “There Aren’t a Lot of Nonbinary Parts”

Emma Corrin Says They Are Open to Playing Male Characters: “There Aren’t a Lot of Nonbinary Parts”,The Crown and Deadpool 3 star Emma Corrin talks about the "hate" they received after coming out and being open to male roles as a nonbinary actor.

Emma Corrin Says They Are Open to Playing Male Characters: “There Aren’t a Lot of Nonbinary Parts”

Emma CorrinKate Green/Getty Images

Emma Corrin says the backlash to announcing their gender identity was “quite a reality check” and is expressing openness to taking on male roles amid a lack of nonbinary characters in Hollywood.

In an interview with Vanity Fair, The Crown and Deadpool 3 star opened up about their experience coming out publicly as nonbinary — after updating their pronouns on social media — and the lack of opportunities currently available for nonbinary actors.

Speaking to how they handled publicly identifying as nonbinary, Corrin — who didn’t talk with their team before sharing it publicly — said they experienced an amount of hate they weren’t prepared for.

Despite that, Corrin says the decision was ultimately worth it for the people who it may have helped. “Especially around conversations of gender and stuff, it does help a lot of people to see someone living as a nonbinary person in the world. I know how much other people’s accounts helped me, that’s my motivation for keeping my social media at the moment,” they said.

After updating their Instagram bio back in July 2021, the Golden Globe winner shared at the time that “visibility is key with these things,” even if they weren’t exactly sure how they identified under the nonbinary label. “I think we are so used to defining ourselves,” they said in an August 2021 interview. “That’s the way society works within these binaries and it’s taken me a long time to realize that I exist somewhere in between and I’m still not sure where that is yet.”

In the interview, Corrin also addressed the lack of nonbinary roles in Hollywood and how that has impacted their decision making around the parts they take on.

“There aren’t a lot of nonbinary parts out there. We need to be supporting queer writers and developing projects and welcoming these narratives into the creative space,” they said. “But also, being nonbinary for me is a very fluid space where it’s not a rejection of femininity or masculinity, it’s sort of an embrace of both. My experience on this earth has been a female one, up until recently, and I still love all those parts of me.”

Finding it “interesting that I’m not offered male parts,” Corrin said the lack of male-specified roles on their resumé isn’t for a lack of interest. “I would equally be drawn to that! I suppose it’s also what the industry sees you as, and I think, hopefully, that is shifting,” they explained. “The beauty of acting is taking on a character that doesn’t necessarily have to be completely in tune with your own experience. It’s sort of a way to explore. But I would love to play nonbinary, new parts, male parts. Anything, as long as it’s right.”

The actor — who portrayed Lady Diana Spencer in an award-winning performance for The Crown in season four — also discussed feeling similarly to Diana, or even her son and wife Prince Harry and Megan Markle, in terms of living in relative obscurity and then being thrust into the limelight.

“I had a weird parallel experience of being plucked from nowhere and suddenly having people outside my house or knocking on my door or following me home,” they said of their experiences after being cast on the hit Netflix royal drama. “I’ve been watching the Harry & Megan documentary and I think they talked about it so well — especially about the nature of the British tabloid press. You [have to] make sure you have a public and private side of your life because it does change things a lot.”